Pointless meetings, getting dressing-down key triggers of office rage

The study, commissioned by digital imaging company Canon, also found that ill manners and office politics are most likely to frustrate workers.

The survey discovered that eight out of ten office workers in the UK have witnessed acts of visible anger when colleagues become overcome with the frustrations of modern office life.

Some 68 per cent of respondents cited ‘being spoken down to’ as a common cause of work related stress in the office, followed by ‘office politics’ cited by 58 per cent.

Nearly 20 per cent of UK workers admitted to kicking or breaking office equipment as a means to vent out their frustration, with the desk, stapler, phone, keyboard and printer most often in the firing line.

The study also revealed that PC downtime infuriated 24 per cent of workers, while people leaving paper jams in printers for others to fix enraged a further quarter.

“For people to feel less stressed in the office, they need to feel more in control of their working life and working environment. When this control is lost through external events such as a rude boss, sitting in a pointless meeting or a printer jam that no-one wants to fix, it doesn’t take much for the average office worker to snap,” the Scotsman quoted Lucy Beresford, a psychotherapist and occupational stress expert, as saying.

“There is no doubt that office rage is on the increase, but a range of initiatives such as crisper meetings or inter- personal kindness could reduce stress levels and even extend the life expectancy of office equipment,” she added.

Beresford recommended several tips for helping to reduce office rage, including cutting the length and frequency of meetings and ensuring a specific agenda.

She also mentioned talking to colleagues and bosses about frustrations in the workplace, and not being rude or getting involved in office politics.

According to the poll, the UK’s most angry offices appeared to be Cardiff, where 69 per cent admitted to outbursts in the office, followed by Belfast and Birmingham both at 56 per cent.

Workers in Dundee, Brighton and Newcastle were reported to be the calmest and least prone to temper tantrums.

The new study comes as Napier University Business School in Edinburgh is launching a new emotional intelligence programme for business leaders to create happier, more productive offices and avoid staff fury.

“Too many people feel as though they are bit-players in someone else’s movie. They need to feel as if they matter because all the research says that if we can make people feel that they matter, it lifts them,” said course leader Mike Fiszer, a business management psychologist and former leadership coach.

“It makes them feel as if they are important which makes them much more resilient and better at coping with things that would normally frustrate them.

Managers should comment more on the positive aspects of people’s performance. Criticism should be thought out much more carefully by managers before they use it,” he added. (ANI)